No Catchy Nickname:bluecrabscribe: I seem to recall a huge outage of the US baking system back in the early '90s. I remember it was in mid-December because I was doing my Christmas shopping and the stores were only taking cash. Came back up a few hour later. Wasn't a hacker, it turned out to be an AT&T tech who didn't understand BGP.

Everyone had to go without bread for a day or two?

I tell ya, I lived through it. It was pandemonium. Riots in the streets. A run on Twinkies, cakes, pies, you name it. Bread lines everywhere.

Shakin_Haitian:nmemkha: Its not an attack, they just got tired of losing at Starcraft:

I like how American that artist is. He's so fat that he draws starving people obesely.

I learned from Fark that he's actually a trim ultra-marathon runner. His astute marketing research before he started drawing showed him that fat characters are more endearing to the English-speaking public.

nymersic: The attack doesn't need to start in Best Korea for it to be because of them, by the way. I've known some American supporters of the DPRK even. There's people everywhere willing to swallow propaganda, and fight for a bullshiat cause.

Don't forget the ones that are doing because they are $750,000 in debt and have pretty much worn out their welcome in the rest of the world.

This looks like a fumbled attempt to attack South Korea's economy as revenge for the recent sanctions. I'm betting the goals were for a much larger attack and resulting effects. But like everything else the north does, what was supposed to be huge, turned into a fizzle.

I feel sorry for whoever sold this to glorious leader. If you promise a massive, crippling, cyber attack, and this is what you deliver, than..... the rest of your very short life is going to be very painful.

Spaced Lion:HEADLINE: No, seriously, EVERYBODY PANICFTA: "The shutdown appeared to be more of an inconvenience than a source of panic."

Not sure if serious, or just an incidence of Trollmitterus Asshatticus.

Half agreed: On one hand the incident itself didn't do very much, its more the implications that an otherwise laughably ineffective opponent was able to do that on a whim against what is supposed to be one of the most technologically capable countries. Imagine what something with some real ability could do against a much more inferior infrastructure, like America's.

Misch:Bontesla: I just have a hard time believing they have the capacity to do this. In my head - all of the computers in the DPRK are cardboard cutouts with people inside making beeping noises for legitimacy.

They have computers.

you're thinking of North korea, numb nuts. south korea is ahead of us in many ways, especially internet speeds and lower costs for internet.

You all joke now. But sooner or later, they'll be coming for your porn. And you won't know what to do when your wife leaves to go shopping for an hour or two. And you'll watch poker on ESPN and it will be terrible.

Nana's Vibrator:You all joke now. But sooner or later, they'll be coming for your porn. And you won't know what to do when your wife leaves to go shopping for an hour or two. And you'll watch poker on ESPN and it will be terrible.

If only some form of secondary system were available, a 'backup' of sorts.

Endive Wombat:Can someone explain to me what exactly an attack of this nature entails?

Like, do they log into the servers and delete databases then delete system32 or some other nonsense?

I guess my question is, what does the damage look like?

I'd think it looks a lot like a Chinese fire drill. Only with Koreans instead of Chinese, and instead of running around a car, it's a bunch of guys running around screaming and waving their hands and babbling about their malfunctioning computers. It probably looks pretty hilarious.